Corpus

Well, somehow we got invited to dinner with Nicole's best friend Courtney and her parents last night, so we went.

We really like and trust Courtney's parents.

We weren't there five minutes before the girls hit us up. They wanted to drive to Corpus Christi during spring break (and Nicole's 17th birthday is that week). Alone. Unchaperoned. They're 16. No plans for how they would rent a room being underage, how they would pay for it, what would happen if injured, what would happen if in a car accident, etc.... Later it came out that there were lots of their 18 - 19yr old friends going. Oh, and Corpus is 4 hours away.

You can guess our answer: NO!

We did, however, give them the option to accompany us to a rented beach house. They can invite their friends to come to the beach, even run around unchaperoned during the daylight hours, but they'd sleep in the beach house with us. Well, that was a big no! They did NOT want to do this.

Eventually, the girls left dinner before we did, leaving parents to talk. We really enjoyed our time.

When Nicole came home, the first thing she said to me was, "Sooooooooooooo, about the beach house...."

I'm guessing I will be renting a beach house.

Christmas Day is Almost Here & I Am Still Sick of Teenagers

I guess the title about sums it up for me.

This kid is wearing us out. Jerry has her at the doctor's office right now - they are doing an ultrasound to see if she has a gallbladder issue or not. She seems to have an upset stomach (in the gallbladder area) that won't go away. In my opinion, she's way too young for that, but what do I know?

Then, yesterday, she woke up with tonsil issues again. Made another appointment at 11:45am (different doctor, of course). She informed me this morning that she didn't need to go to the second doctor - she just has a cold.

It's the attitude. The superior intellect - she knows EVERYTHING about everything and is the ultimate determiner of what is right or wrong.

Ugh.

Merry Christmas.

Get A Fork

I'm done. Today my child informed me she was "too tired" to go to school.

Jerry and I are scheduled for a parent/teacher meeting today after school to address getting her back on track, which is where she is SUPPOSED to be.

I had to contact her counselor this morning and tell her that Nicole chose to skip school and we cannot make her go. Doesn't this look good?

So, we told her EARLY this morning that she had to get up and go to first period. If she couldn't make it to first period, she was not going to school at all - no waiting till halfway through the school day and amazingly feel better, hoping this will allow her to have driving privileges. If she didn't get to school by first period, no going anywhere, no one coming over, no driving. She just mumbled, "Okay," and rolled over.

We are seriously considering wilderness camp. Friends, we are both at our wits' ends. I'm exhausted and lost.

Hope the teachers, counselor, or principal can give us some productive guidance.

Oh, Joy!

My child is in "love" again with a boy that broke her heart one year ago. In her words, she "loves him and never stopped loving him." You know, you "never stop loving someone." And, she made him promise to "never hurt her," because she "always gets hurt."

I asked her what fits into the category of "hurts" and she didn't have an exact answer. I tried telling her that when you hold people to a vague expectation, they can never meet it. Any time her feelings get hurt, he'll have "hurt" her and there you go. She's conjuring up her own disappointments.

The boy? Strictly a ne'er-do-well. Not a bad kid, but no real ambition. He graduated last year. College? Uh, no. He's working in a warehouse at his dad's company. He said he is saving up to go to trade school to be a mechanic or, get this, an auto "detailist." Wow, apply stick-on pin-striping? Every parent's dream.

Good points? No driver's license. We like that. Plus, his work keeps him busy all day and sleepy at night.

This kid is wearing me out. If I point out anything that is not sunshine and flowers, she gets angry.

So, my daughter is "in love" with Mr. Wonderful (who just happened to have broken her heart previously, but he'll never hurt her or leave her again... and we know this because he "said so.")

Life is an adventure.

Mystery Illness Solved

It was testosterone. As suspected.

Later in the afternoon, my darling daughter called to tell me the boy she likes was telling "everybody" that he only liked her as a friend and didn't like like her. Then she started crying.

I asked her if that is why didn't want to go to school and she said it was. What hurt was she had been flirting and telling people she liked him, etc... and he was saying the opposite to everyone BUT her.

So, she was humiliated.

God, I remember that time of life. Not necessarily the same set of problems, but the thought of being ridiculed and talked about was tragic. Enough to make you "sick."

So, after a nice, long "come to Jesus" meeting, it is well understood that skipping school or avoiding life isn't acceptable.

Tomorrow starts a new chapter.

It's All Peachy

I am in Atlanta this evening. It felt weird to leave home after all the trauma of the past few days, but it kind of feels good, too.

My kid is out roaming the streets of Houston as she has done the last 2 nights. In fact, we haven't seen her much at all. There has been a ton of "spending the nights" going on.

I heard she popped into the house today to take a shower, but hasn't been seen since. I talked to her and she wanted to know if she could spend the night with Courtney at Holly's house.

She has to call Dad and clear it with him. He'll say, "yes."

I can't WAIT till school is back in session - too much freedom for these kids! Turn the lights on, please!

Oh, Atlanta... I haven't seen much of it yet. The airport is humongous. I got my rental car and headed up 85N which is where my meeting will be tomorrow...along the way, I passed downtown, complete with a building that has a HUGE peach on top of it. Cute, too!

They're taking us to a Braves game tomorrow night. As a die-hard Astros fan, this might be difficult, but I am going to do my best.

It will be kind of fun to sing that Indian song...and chop with tomahawk.

Maybe I'll find some ice cold Cokes in little bottles. Mmmm... doesn't that sound great??

Day Two

I do not intend to keep this blog as a commentary on my child's school life, but felt a follow-up to day one, The Day When Only My Hair Matters, was in order.

Miss Priss zipped by the house after school to let the dogs out and might have been home all of the 45 seconds it took to get them out the door, peed, and back in again. We didn't see her again until about 8:50pm. She has to be in by 9pm on school nights.

Her hair was a success. Her ex-boyfriend's new, old girlfriend wore hers UP the first day? Can you believe it?? She's evil, though. And, if my daughter's name comes out of her mouth again, the gloves are off!

I cannot believe I have kid who would trounce someone because another person TALKS about her.

We spent about an hour talking about letting it go, quit carrying around all the drama, it's no one's burden but Nicole's as she is the one hanging onto it, and how life, in general, is just better when we release the crap. When all was said and done, she still wants to pound her if she says one more word.

At that point, all I could say was, "If I find out YOU started anything, you're grounded."

The rebuttal, of course, was, "Oh, she'd start it, but I'd finish it."

That's my delicate, beautiful flower.

Back to school. She needs to change her schedule, but informed me that the first period teacher said it might take 2 weeks. TWO weeks?? Goodness! I am having a hard time refraining from calling the school and making this happen today, but we're determined this year to let her reap the consequences of her own actions. If, by some reason, this means she has to revisit her junior year or spend next summer in class, well, so be it.

As a good mom, I want to end this report on a good note. Nicole's hair was just lovely today - she had her bangs pulled back and the rest straightened and hanging down. Lovely.

Ground Rules

Last night, Jerry and I discussed our ground rules for Nicole's junior year of high school. When she got home, I called her in her room and we laid down on the bed and just started talking.

I told her now that she was an upperclassman, she could be home at 9pm on school nights (instead of 8pm last year). I wasn't going to monitor to see if she did her homework, started her projects, got the materials needed for the projects, etc... She wants more privileges, she needs to manage these areas of her life. She agreed.

I did tell her, however, that I would be watching her grades for zeroes. Any zero is grounds for immediate loss of driving privileges. Again, agreement. Our child has a tendency to NOT turn in work she's done. Can we say L.A.Z.Y.??????

There was a lot more, but no reason to go into every detail here. It just seemed that it went smoothly and I think a lot of it was my own approach to giving her the information. I need to remember that, as a teen, she needs to feel more in charge of her life and the choices made for her.

We'll see how it goes as the year progresses. Nicole is strictly a social animal. I am not exaggerating. Her ENTIRE being survives on being in her circle of friends and having "that special someone" in her life.

I keep telling her she's a flower and the boys are bees. Flowers don't chase bees.

My flower chases bees and it scares the holy bejeebus out of them!

Seems some pruning might be in order.

And It's The Last Week of Summer

...for kids! For kids in my school district, that is. Meaning, MINE!!! Wooohoooo!

I don't mean it to sound like I don't want her around - that's not the thing. The "thing" is she thrives so much better in structure.

She's SO boy-crazy, it wears me out. I'm telling you, Michael Phelps has nothing on me.

Except a well-muscled body and 8 gold medals.

She's Still Here (Except When She's Not)

Well, to bring you up to date, our darling child called at about 10:25pm last evening to let us know, "some guy hit me" and would I come to Sonic and talk to him for her.

At first, I thought she meant some guy hit her, hit her, but she meant he hit her.... with his car! Oh great, 16 and the first accident.

All I could see was smoke shooting out of Jerry's ears and all he can think about is our insurance rates are going up.

Thank God, no one was hurt, though.

The accident was basically nothing...our car is exactly like it was when she got in it - just fine. The other guy's is scuffed, but he's being a big baby about it all. His '93 Nissan's new paint job is scuffed.

I happen to believe my child that she was in the right. Long story and not necessary. Trust me, I am not one to up and believe the tale of a teen, but I do this one.

Anyway, he filed a claim. We're contesting. Farmer's can deal with this.

Oh, and for an update on the boy/Holly story... Holly doesn't know our daughter likes said boy, but she is STILL flirting - can you believe it?? Holly should just feel the vibes of "off limits" because our kid likes the same boy.

Whew! it's exhausting!

Winner! and other ramblings...

Back on line for just a bit and I am a winner! Why not scoot on over to A Very Mary Design and take a peek at the earrings I won. Thanks, Mary!

I'm at work right now and no one is here but me, so look what I'm doing...sneaking in a post.

Wanted to take a moment and thank my Scrabble buddy, Kerrie, for the nice welcome. Why not drop in and meet my friend from down under. We've been playing online Scrabble for quite a while now. Well, it's not really playing for her - she pretty much whips my butt every time - I might just occupy some time. If you could see how many times I get all vowels, you would know I was truly under some kind of Vowel Monster spell. It's really unbelievable.

Anyway, if I have led you to believe that we're only friends via Scrabble, that would be wrong. Scrabble allowed us to develop a great friendship. Hopefully someday we'll get a chance to meet in person.

Hmm... yesterday I left off wondering when my child would come home. She did good - she was home in time for us to take her dad out to lunch. We went and had Mexican food and good time was had by all. She even stayed home for the rest of the day which is a big accomplishment for a 16 year old with a car.

Of course, all her friends were doing family stuff, so that kind of put a crimp in her style.

Oh well, we all get crimped from time to time.

When does school start????